A group led by Josh Harris that includes Magic Johnson has agreed to buy the NFL's Washington Commanders from longtime owner Dan Snyder and his family.
The sides announced the deal in a joint statement Friday, roughly a month after they reached an agreement in principle on the sale for a record US$6.05 billion.
The deal is the largest for a North American professional sports franchise, surpassing the US$4.55 billion Walmart heir Robert Walton paid for the Denver Broncos last year. It is still pending approval of three-quarters of owners and other customary closing conditions.
"We are very pleased to have reached an agreement for the sale of the Commanders franchise with Josh Harris, an area native, and his impressive group of partners," Snyder and his wife, Tanya, said in the statement. "We look forward to the prompt completion of this transaction and to rooting for Josh and the team in the coming years."
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said league staff and its finance committee will review details of the proposed transaction. Owners meet later this month in Minnesota, but they are only expected to get an update on the situation then, with a formal vote expected in the coming months.
Snyder has owned the team since 1999, when he bought his favourite boyhood team for US$750 million, and despite mounting criticism repeatedly said he'd never sell. That changed after multiple investigations by the league and Congress into Washington's workplace misconduct and potential financial improprieties. The congressional investigation found Snyder played a role in a toxic culture.
Harris' group includes Washington-area billionaire Mitchell Rales, the basketball Hall of Famer Johnson and David Blitzer, among others. Harris and Blitzer have owned the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers since 2011 and the NHL's New Jersey Devils since 2013.
"I could not be more excited to be a partner in the proposed new ownership group for the Washington Commanders," . "Josh Harris has assembled an amazing group who share a commitment to not only doing great things on the field but to making a real impact in the (Washington-area) community. I'm so excited to get to work on executing our vision for the Commanders and our loyal fanbase."
Harris grew up in the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Md. He said he got to experience the excitement of the team winning three Super Bowls and establishing a long-term culture of success.
"We look forward to the formal approval of our ownership by the NFL in the months ahead and to having the honour to serve as responsible and accountable stewards of the Commanders franchise moving forward," Harris said. "We look forward to running a world-class organization and making significant investments on and off the field to achieve excellence and have a lasting and positive impact on the community."
The new owners' first major task for the long-term future of the organization is a new stadium to replace FedEx Field, the rushed-to-completion home of the team since 1997 in Landover, Md., that has not aged well. Virginia abandoned a stadium bill last year amid a number of off-field controversies swirling around the team, though possibilities exist to build there, in Maryland or the District of Columbia at the site of the team's former home, RFK Stadium.
Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, who led Washington to its three Super Bowl titles, said he has gotten to know Harris and his leadership team and fully supports the ownership group.
"The NFL has grown a great deal since my time as a coach in this league, but what hasn't changed is my belief that with great leadership from the top, the drive to win on the field and a commitment to culture -- championship teams are created," Gibbs said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. "Josh and his team share these values and I am committed to doing what I can to reconnect this great franchise to the community, fanbase and alumni."
MPs debated the first non-confidence motion of the fall House of Commons sitting today, seeing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre push once again for a snap election. But with votes secured to keep them afloat, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals were quick to turn the discussion into a referendum on the Conservative alternative.
An image of the unidentified object shot down over Canada's Yukon territory in February 2023 has been obtained by CTVNews.ca.
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Â鶹´«Ã½ and the Investigative Journalism Foundation spoke with a Canadian who claims his identity was stolen and used to set up a series of companies peddling fraudulent investment schemes.
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We've all had neighbours we didn't like, but two people from Sault Ste. Marie have been awarded more than half a million dollars for the 'extreme' behaviour of the people who lived next to them.
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A former Memphis police officer who has pleaded guilty to violating Tyre Nichols’s civil rights testified in tears Tuesday, saying he left Nichols’s young son fatherless, that he was sorry and that he wishes he had stopped the punches.
Prince Harry said today's youth is in the midst of an 'epidemic' of anxiety, depression and social isolation due to negative experiences online, as he brought his campaign to help children and their parents navigate cyberspace to this week's Clinton Global Initiative.
Donald Trump flubbed the name of Charlottesville, Virginia, while going off script during a speech on Tuesday otherwise focused on economic policy, slamming U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for lying about 'Charlottestown.'
Japan's top diplomat asked China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens there after the fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy, and demanded a crackdown on what she called 'groundless, malicious and anti-Japanese' social media posts that threaten children's safety.
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A study from the University of Ottawa has laid out a damning portrait of the current state of violence and harassment educators face in schools, according to the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF).
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Authorities arrested a man from Pincher Creek after shots were fired near a home on the Blood Tribe First Nation.
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Newfoundland and Labrador sponsored a minor football team in England, now they’re about to play one of the biggest clubs in European soccer.
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A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
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